To see you happy
by LaurelSilver
Summary: The walk to the park takes a long time. But Akane doesn't mind; she doesn't think she's ever seen Shūsei happier.


Shūsei curls up in his office chair, mug of hot chocolate balancing in his hands where his game controller usually sits. He is silent, face unusually serious set, staring out at the snow falling over Tokyo. The room is warm, warmer than Shūsei would like; he would give anything to feel the cold bite of the snow he can hardly remember. He wants so badly for his mama to come wrap him up in his coat and his hat and his scarf and his mittens, and for her to send him outside with a carrot and some coal and some old clothes to build a snow person.

That's his only memory of his mother. At least, he thinks it's a memory, but he could have dreamt it. It was so long ago, and he was so young, he can't really be sure.

He gets like this every year. Ginoza never really cared enough to check up on him, to ask him if he wants taking outside to play in the snow. The Enforcers would show pity, from Shion giving him the most motherly hugs she can, to Tonami helping him to put up decorations around their office. Ginoza would always glare at Tonami for that, especially when Tonami would mention how much his son had loved shaking the snow globe that had sat on the mantelpiece, saying it would be snowing both inside and outside.

The Enforcers do all they can to make Shūmei happy in the winter months, treating him even more like the child he never got to be. But it's never quite enough, and none of them have ever been able to talk Ginoza into taking him outside, so none of them think it ever will be quite enough.

Akane hands in her completed paperwork to Ginoza, including explanations for her decisions in their last mission and an analysis of the crime scene as she had viewed it.

"Shūsei?" she asks, "Are you alright?"

The entire office if Enforcers stop what they're doing to stare; none of them have ever been asked that before. No one really cares for the feelings of a hunting dog.

"Yeah," Shūsei answers, sounding almost as happy go lucky as he usually is, "I'm just fine. Appreciating the weather, that's all."

"The snow is nice, isn't it?" Akane stands by his chair, gazing out over Tokyo with him, "I really like the way it covers everything, and when it's fresh it looks so pure and pretty and nice. And I like the footprints that people and animals leave in them."

"I like building snow people," Shūsei answers, unusually quiet.

Ginoza scoffs. "And the last time you built a snow person was, when, exactly?"

"Don't be mean, lad," Tonami scolds him, only to be answered with another scoff.

"I remember my mama said it was amazing," Shūsei says, still staring at the falling snow, "Looking back, it was an absolute piece of shit, but mama said it was amazing. It had a carrot nose, and coal eyes and smile, and it wore a hat and scarf that none of us ever wore because it was itchy. It was slightly shorter than I was."

"That's sweet," Akane smiles. "But, how old would you have been?"

"Four or five. Wasn't allowed outside when I lived in the facility. Can't go outside without accompaniment now." Shūsei sighs into his hot chocolate, eyes closed to barricade the tears behind his lashes from the outside world, "I became a hunting dog because I thought I would have more freedom. But instead, I've just got more rules; I can't do this, I mustn't do that. The funny thing is, at the facility I wouldn't even have known it was snowing. Here, I know it's snowing, but I can't go out in it. It's there, and I can watch it and I can see it, but I can't go out there and be in it. And in a funny way, that's worse than not knowing it's there."

There is a long, stifling silence that hangs thickly like a suffocating smog, a smog as black as snow is white.

"Do you have any winter clothes?" Akane asks.

"I do, yeah, they come automatically in the dressing thingy. Not the nicest, and police issued, but I have some."

"Put them on!"

"What?" Shūsei stares at her, and the rest of the Enforcers and Ginoza stare too with expressions ranging from shock to amazed respect to anger in Ginoza's case.

"I can accompany you outside," Akane explains with a small smile, "I can you take you to the park, to the sports field, and you can build snow people and have snow fights and make snow angels and whatever you like."

"You can do that?" Shūsei asks, voice disbelieving but his hand reaching for his 'dressing thingy'.

"Yes, I can," and Akane changes her own clothes into her outdoor wear; a nicely tailored long coat with a fur lining and a hood.

Shūsei's clothes change on command to the police winter uniform; thick boots, thick jacket, thick trousers, a ski mask and a pair of gloves. The gloves he discards and the ski mask he shoves up and turns around until it looks like a beanie hat. It's not as comfortable as his casual attire, but he's too excited about the snow to care.

Ignoring Ginoza's orders not to stray too far away from Akane, Shūsie runs about, crunching the snow down under his boots, marvelling at the clean-cut footprints, just like Akane had said. He puts his bare hands straight down in a patch of unmarred snow on a low wall, revelling in the cold bite, marvelling at the handprints he leaves, at how pink his hands turn. He breathes deeply, dragon breath swirling up into the grey sky.

The walk to the park takes a long time. But Akane doesn't mind; she doesn't think she's ever seen Shūsei happier.

* * *

**A/N;**

**I'm writing about snow. In August. What?**

**First Psycho Pass fic! I really like ****Shūsei. I think that the rest of the group childise him a bit, but he doesn't really mind.**

**Reviews appreciated, especially on writing style and story telling as I am an aspiring writer**

**I own nothing  
-Laurel Silver**


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